Noa Kaiba
by OverRide-doing-donuts
Summary: Elliot Allagash has nothing on him. Both may be raving lunatics and millionaires with hardly a face and scarcely spoken name, but I met him once many years ago. It is thanks to him, I am who where I am. But we never talk about him, no, for he may be in the walls, and he is waiting. Just waiting -Seto
1. He came with shrimps on the roof

Whenever I think about how I got here, how many people I had to walk on, it always brings me back to him. It goes without saying that anyone that knows him, or at least his name knows better than to talk about him.

After all, there's every chance he's in the walls, just waiting. Waiting for some kind of signal maybe, or just for me to step out of line.

But as the head of Kaiba Corp, I do not forget my word.

"Who was it exactly that got you here?" Mokuba used to ask long ago. I had done my best to keep him out of the dealings I had with him.

"Mokuba, as you now live in his house and are soon to work at his offices, please refrain from ever talking about him to me or any other member of society." Was all I had to say to my brother. Ever since that day he seems to have forgotten he ever asked.

It goes without saying that I would never have attempted this job without our partnership.

The unknown Seto Yagami-Sasaki and the infamous and almost forgotten child of Gozaburo Kaiba himself.

Noa Alexi Jean-Louis Kaiba.

* * *

I was never really accepted in society, I was raising my brother after my mother's death and father's disassociation with us. It felt somehow that I would always have to fight like a salmon swimming upstream. I didn't mind though, as long as Mokuba was fed, warm and safe. Mother told me to watch him for her.

"Now, if we take the variable here and substitute in..." The teacher fell into the background as I revised for my advanced exams, it hadn't taken much for me to convince the school board to push me up another year. Now a full two years ahead of my "cohort", I was looked down upon on all sides, especially the other children in the orphanage. If it weren't for the fact that Katherine took pity upon us, Mokuba would not be alive. As the final bell rang and the sky began to orange at the seam of heavens meeting earth, I rushed to get back. Mokuba was unwell and it was my job to watch over him.

"Nii-tama!" He garbled out. Mokuba was always enthusiastic to see me; whenever he saw me running up the gate way, he would clap and cheer as if I were racing. He liked to tell me stories about how I was fighting monsters or fires and that was why I had to run everywhere.

He wasn't far off.

In his mind, he probably called the other kids the monsters that I had to protect him from and the fires would be school. Telling him about this now makes him rather upset, as he is proud of his intelligence.

"Hey Mokie. I'm home from that great big daily fire." I said as we walked back inside the long corridor to the library. Once there, we would settle into a happy quiet with I tutoring him for his eventual school life. Simple things like basic addition and subtraction, how to read and write. It kept me calm and therefore safe, so none of the staff ever interfered.

"You're reading really well now Mokie. I'm impressed." I said as I gathered up the colourful picture book and replaced it on the shelf. He would giggle and squirm around for a while and then decide he needed to go do some "icky-time" and then we'd shuffle to dinner. This would be all fine and dandy until a week after my advanced exams.

As I had predicted, I passed with nothing less than a hundred percent on each one and was allowed to begin middle school for the next week and then I would be there permanently after the short break.

"Now class, we have a new student here in our school. He just finished grade school, please treat him kindly." The teacher said, her voiced scratched from smoking I would later learn.

"Hi, I'm Seto Yagami." I said, bowing lightly and then returning to my seat at the back next to a vacant desk in the corner. I would very quickly learn who sat in that seat, as not a moment later there was a great noise in the hallway and then a teenager with green hair and a pure white uniform strolled in. I could smell the gunpowder and alcohol on his clothes from our short distance apart.

"Hi, I'm Seto-" I began. He huffed, glared at me, squinted, and then threw a small paperback book squarely at my chest.

"Salutations and silence." Was his response.

I would learn in the next full hour that his name was Noa Kaiba, son of the famed Kaiba Corp CEO. But at the mention of his heritage, I watched him flinch. He looked as though he was reaching for his hip pocket, but for what end?

"Don't think I don't know you've been watching me all morning." He says as class goes out to lunch.

"I keep seeing you reach for your hip pocket whenever they talk about your... Genealogy. Any reason?" I asked plainly, sensing this boy was not one for games.

"Huh, so you are as bright as you look. How about we have lunch? You and me." He speaks with method, like each word was carefully calculated and then placed into an equation. I don't remember me agreeing to that, but I went anyway and enjoyed shrimps and other luxury foods on the rooftop of the building. It was a very nice day.

But what he said will forever haunt me.

* * *

"Now, we can play the coy card and I can forget your very existence, and that can have its own consequences, however, I am more interested in being honest. I know your life almost as well as you do." Noa's voice sharpened as his eyes shut in thought, waiting for a response. I quickly swallowed my food and looked at my hands while I thought of an answer. How could he know?

"Oh, I did some research on you as soon as I heard your name on the roll." Noa's whole body showed disinterest, but his lilting voice held glee. He knew what I was going to say.

"I see, Mr Kaiba. I would therefore like to understand what it is exactly I will be asked to do here." I said, putting all the steel I could in my voice. He smiled.

It was during this exchange that I realised his appearance was off. He was older, his jaw square and eyes sharp. His frame was less awkward than mine, and he had considerable height on me. His smile was that of a commander's, I suppose in all that happened, that was who he was.

"Very good question Seto, and again, I will be straight with you. I want you to run the Kaiba Corporation. I have no desire to dirty my hands with it, nor am I about to hand it over to the board." I raised my eyebrow, causing Noa to chuckle.

"There is an opening, though father won't admit it, for a rival for me. I suppose he wants me to have some reason to work, which is why he sent me here, five years below my cohort. I want you to be my rival, and in return, I will grant you whatever wish you want most whenever you want it." He outstretched a lanky arm, his hand skinny but hold firm as I gave him my smaller one. With that decided, he laughed.

"And now we shall watch the old man burn."

* * *

 **I read a book once called Elliot Allagash. Never before had I realised that this was something I would later use on one of my favourite fandoms. So, Noa Kaiba is my Elliot Allagash. This was and is a creation made with the permission of Iced Blood and with him I consult this document. Therefore, read, review and enjoy. If you want to read my Tumblr, you can find me under blackwingfoodschick.**

 **Now with the shameless plugging of things,**

 **FREE DONUTS**


	2. He came to teach

Whenever I think about him, my feet drag me back to where the scheme unfolded. Not the Domino Middle school I attended, no.

It was his study. Noa Kaiba's personal plotting hole. Many afternoons, days even, were spent in this room creating plans and executing them to some extent. He was thorough in his research, his reasoning. There was not much that escaped the true heir to the Kaiba legacy. If you saw that room now, all that is in there is an empty desk and a large tank of ashes. Ashes of all that was once Gozaburo's work. Every design, every contract he made, all burnt up; just like Noa's room, I preserved some memory of the megalomaniacs that once owned this city.

And just above the tank on the farthest wall from the door are two framed pieces of paper.

My contract and his plot.

As it would be, after lunch we had a few final classes and then I'd return to sweet little Mokuba, who was soon turning three, and I seven. I had decided that what I really desired for both of us was a better home, and asked for it to be done by my brother's birthday. The fifteenth of May. Noa had accepted this, and in turn handed me a contract to sign, to be returned the next day at school.

"Now Seto, how do you feel about being popular?" He asked me the next day. To be honest, before he involved me in this madness, I had not considered myself in any position to be popular. Even now as I can glare out at the city from my office, I don't think I'm popular. Just well known.

"Well, I have to ask what this has to do with being your rival." I answered honestly. In my childhood, I never understood much about the bigger world.

"This is all about Gozaburo's business model. See, if I say to him, nay, show him a child at my school who is intelligent and popular, he will instantly order me to form a rivalry with you. It's all in the name of advertising. If you sell yourself as this character, so to speak, he will see it as a chance to display either my dominance or failure." Noa's smiles were always haunting, with deep, deep sorrow and anger burning within his eyes, and watching him smile like that was not only unsettling, it was like preparing to have your own funeral.

We both took the same classes, advanced mathematics, Japanese and English Literature. I don't know what compelled me, but for breadth subject, we both took religion. Noa said it helped him find some solace, maybe I was searching for some too. But no matter the reason, I could recite every Proverb and Psalm almost at will. They made for great bedtime reading, according to Mokuba. He would fall asleep every time we read them together.

But soon came the end of term, a short week and a half after my joining.

"Now, over the holidays, I will send one of our employees to come and get you from ten in the morning and he will return you around four in the afternoon. I hope that this is acceptable." Noa said it with a tone that carried it _would_ be accepted, lest I wish to invoke the anger of a very real and _alive_ Kaiba.

"Understood Noa. I'll wait outside the orphanage from ten to every day." I bowed politely and left his company at the last bell of the day.

The day had arrived when I would be meeting Noa outside of school. His employee was one I would soon learn to be very fond of. One Roland Ackerman, a security deskman, charged with little more than keeping a close eye on the secure rooms at all times, which was accomplished through maintaining the security system. Whenever he talks about his old job, he always changes the subject in a hurry, because aside from that, he was also my escort.

"Ah, you must be Seto Yagami. I'm Roland Ackerman, call me what you will. Please, come with me." And I followed the man in the black suit, shoulders broad but sagged, dark brown hair gelled into submission and sunglasses attached to his face. His perfectly bright leather shoes clacked on the hard concrete of the parking lot.

"Excuse me, Mr Ackerman-" I was about to ask him a question, but that was forgotten in the short spasm that my escort had. He almost convulsed.

I decided to call him by his first name.

We rolled up to the mansion promptly at ten that morning, Roland lead me inside and told me to wait in the living room. The house was suave, the walls a tasteful cream and the furniture was covered in light tan suede. The flooring was vinyl in the atrium, checked black and white before meeting the green shag carpet in the living room. Noa came out of the hallway to the east dressed in dark slacks and a sea green turtle neck, white slippers on his feet.

"Welcome to the madhouse, Seto. This way, please." Noa brought me through the long corridors of his mansion, and all the while I can only remember feeling that this place was somehow abandoned. We arrived at a door much like all the others, white laminate and sliver handle just so. He opened it to reveal a small library, walls a pale blue with white shelves lining them, countless books on them. Also in this room was a modern oak desk, painted with gold trimmings and a base of varnish. Noa walked to a chair made of the same suede as in the living area behind his desk and invited me to sit opposite him.

"Now, with you here, we can begin. In this room, for the next four weeks, Viellian Crowler will tutor you in English speech and writing. I will also have to bring you up to speed with programming." Noa threw several books at me, each one about some aspect of computing. It was thanks to these books that I have the technology I do.

The first time I met Viellian Crowler, it was on a crisp Monday morning in the library. He was eccentric to say the least. At that time, his hair was in a blonde bowl cut and he wore starched collars and ribbon ties with vests and overcoats. His was a presence that I would learn from, it was imposing yet entirely open. His smile was the same kind of one you give when you know something that someone else doesn't.

"Greetings, I am Viellian Crowler, doctorate in speech therapy and theatre arts." He gave a shallow bow and then began to write on the chalkboard in the library, instructing me on speech and how to carry myself.

"Mr Crowler, why am I learning how to speak? Don't I have a voice already?" I asked. He scowled at me, thought and then gave me a response.

"How do you speak to your brother? The little one I read about is only three this year, yes?" I nodded, and then replied.

"I talk to him simply, nothing fancy, and I have to be firm when he's misbehaving." His reaction was a small smile, a genuine upturn of his lips.

"Precisely, my boy. Now we have to apply a similar principle when you talk to adults, particularly those you try to intimidate or manipulate. Various words have various effects on people, for example, as soon as you say 'controversy' near a journalist, they'll instantly start weaving tales." And so Dr Crowler continued to teach me for a full day, my notes filled with information on the basic typing of conversation and how to tailor my speech to each person I met.

At the orphanage that night, I began to hear exactly what it was that Crowler had taught me. Kristine talked down to me, as if she could hide her secrets about what happened in my absence. Daniel, Kristine's colleague tried not to, though he is rather sensitive even now when talking about the director, he hushes and uses a multitude of euphemisms when he had to touch on that mess, something I had made sure to change before I had left.

In the first week of my tutoring, I would return to the Domino's Children home to a lonely Mokuba. In those long weeks under Noa's tutelage, I don't remember much about what happened at the orphanage. All I can really make out was that Mokuba knew I was tired and he was not about to make anything worse, but I knew what he did to Kristine. Ms Hathaway had to deal with all his tantrums and I feel indebted to her for her blessed service. But as book upon book of mine filled with speech directions, quotes and vocabulary, my eyes began to slowly decode every piece that Noa put in front of me.

Even now I remember our last few lessons.

* * *

 **As this story is spoken from someone who is summarising a whole period in his life, I think it's better to break it down like this. That, and I cannot think of any reason to go through it day by day. I'm sure Seto would feel the same, as there were probably some days when it was really trivial.**

 **I'm happy with how this is going, the pacing seems a little off-kilter right now, but soon it will even out. We just need to begin school again.**

 **FREEEEE DONUTSSSSSS (and pancakes)**


	3. He came back

In the last week of the experiences I had with Noa as my mentor, we finished my training. In the spare time I had at the orphanage, after I had stolen the director's old computer, I used the Mac to practice what I had been taught. The coding was simple, I even still have the notebook I used to take it apart. The reason I keep this is because of what Noa had taught me to create. In the last lesson he gave me, he had instructed me to "synthesise destruction on a decimal level, allowing it to replicate until it had fully taken control".

Basically, that meant a virus.

* * *

"Now Seto, after today, we go back to school. I plan on having our dear Domino High host a particular event. I'm preparing the finer details right now. It's going to be a test of minds. Anyone can enter, but ultimately my father will pick the best entry." Noa spoke rather suddenly as I was preparing to leave. I turned around in bewilderment.

"What?" Was all I managed to mutter.

"I'm making a showcase, Seto. And you're going to be the main attraction. Sure, kids can enter whatever art or discovery they please, but I'm going to be showcasing you. It'll be a closed event, people will enter, but they'll see your success, as will Gozaburo." Noa was excited about this stage of his plan. He said he had organised for a room to be hired in the local high school and filled with various entries, though he was only going to show mine to Gozaburo, who would approve of the winner decided by Noa. All the other items would go on display in the hall later, after the "judging" and the public could explore them as they wanted.

I found myself being dragged into a situation I had no control over, and therefore, no idea how to cope with.

"Kristine, you know how I've been disappearing from here all holidays? Well, I have this friend, and he's entering me in this competition." I said as Kristine was heading to her office to finish up some papers before she tucked us all into bed.

"I see, and this is bad because?" She asked gently.

"Because I know the competition is rigged! One will win, and the others won't even receive fair judgement. How do I deal with this knowing the result?" I panicked, hands shaking and terror pulsing through my veins. Kristine's smile was never more sincere than when she was dealing with an upset child, be they human or animal.

"Seto, you're strong. If it's really wrong that the result is fixed, then if you can possibly open it up, do so. If you cannot do that, then there is nothing you can do. It's not your fault someone else chose to be corrupted. Remember this, and that you have to help them mend their bent ways." I was still, in shock, and barely made it back to my own bed alone.

* * *

The following day at school was more or less the same, I can't really remember much aside from this ultimately sick feeling in my stomach most of the day. For at least half of our breaks I was hiding in the toilets waiting to throw up, which was why I was thankful that Noa was not present due to his father's business. In between that and the frantic scribbling on pages upon pages of schematics, I was not doing much. The teachers didn't seem to care that I was not paying much attention, I seemed most capable in all of my classes, and until I met with the visiting Dr Crowler, I was totally avoided.

"Ah, the prodigy is here." Crowler's voice was soft as he spoke with me in the hallway to his brief lecture with the seniors.

"Yes, I was advanced. Why are you here, sir?" He paused, placed his hand to his chin and then shrugged.

"I guess I'm here to inspire some sort of... Courage? Care? Perhaps wisdom. Truthfully, I know not. Maybe I'll figure it out." Crowler nodded and was about to walk to the staff room before he called back to me, reminding me that my tutoring was only going to get harder as I went on down this road.

It is only now that I know exactly all he meant.

After school I headed straight home, or at least, as much as home would be at the orphanage. Mokuba didn't hug me today, I really don't know what was different, it was probably that there was a black car waiting for me at the driveway, a man with dark hair and shades talking to Miss Hathaway and the fact that I was ushered out of the building in a hurry. I didn't even realise that I was in the Kaiba Mansion until Noa came to my vision with a Smug Expression™ and a cup of water and lemon juice.

"Greetings. Now, tonight there will be no rest. You've been excused from school for the next three days. For now, you'll be creating the machine you've devised. Clear?" He all but forced me to drink the bitter water, after which he lead me to the back of the lot.

* * *

"This is my personal research area. You'll be using it to construct your piece. Good luck, I can't help you directly, but if you do need help I know someone who can." Noa sat on the couch, white suit glistening in the impossibly bright room, steel mirrors hanging in the atrium, walls painted a crisp white with golden flourishes to match his suit. The rug in the centre of the room sat under a purple couch, which was also brightened by the green beneath it. The doors were glass, reinforced and the desk at the back of the room that held all the keys and cameras of the various rooms was an attractive dark oak with heavy black leather bolted to the top. I grabbed the key that read "main lab".

"Noa, where do I go?" I called out to him. He stood and lead me through.

It was an impossibly large building. There were corridors that stretched for what seemed forever, and they all seemed to go _down_.

"This is the main lab, the key there opens it and operates most of the machines. So go ahead, open her up." As I put the key in the lock, it turned automatically and swooshed to the side, revealing the white-tiled, steel walled, titanium reinforced room, glass shields in the corner stacked neatly into a machine that would fold them out in an emergency and a space to the side that was perfectly sterilised for treatments of wounds and illness. I was in awe, if I became a Kaiba...

"This will be all yours, if not later, then now. I don't care for this place. All it's good for these days is making a volcano. Anyway, place the key in that wall there, and all the computers and whatever will become available. Security, you know." Noa sighed heavily as I followed his instructions. It was then, when all the shiny equipment was in view that I asked.

"Noa, is something wrong?" I waited. His face contorted to anger and he breathed deeply a few times.

"You're the first to ask. Fine: My father is a fuckwit and I want him dead. Typical behaviour of a teenager, I know, but he's a serious... Bastard, son of a bitch, demon lord!" Noa's face was once again formed in anger, hatred seething from his teeth. He was breathing deeply, trying to calm down, but soon tears began to roll off his cheeks and I knew that the flood gates had finally opened.

" _Chichiue wa warui kami... WARUYOU! Chichiue wa minasan wa totemo bakana, ne, Noa. DAME! MINASAN WA... Wa...Shinsetsu...dene_..."* His voice went quiet suddenly as he sobbed, his Japanese half clearly the one more relied on when in stress.

"Ne, Nii-sama, zenzen daijoubu desuka? Boku wa ima, sousuruto, anata no chichiue ga nanimo, ne?"** I tried my best to answer in fluent Japanese, and he seemed to smile.

"Hai, arigatou gozaimasu, toutou-kun. Ima, hatarakete onegaishimasu."*** I gave him a small nod, pretending to understand everything and the began to gather the parts I'd need to create my piece to show Gozaburo.

Solid Vision.

* * *

 ***"Daddy (polite, really, but in this sense it's more out of disrespect) is an evil god. EVIL! Daddy said that everyone is stupid. NO! Everyone is... Is... Important...Right?"**

 ****"Hey, big brother, is everything okay? I'm here, so... Your dad is nothing at this time."**

 *****"Thank you so much, little bro. Now, get to work please."  
**

 **I speak Japanese, so this is the best way I felt the conversation would go. I would like to present a note, the "(i)ue" ending in a name is a specific honourific that denotes a person of "mastership", either by familial position or actual mastery of a skill. When I translate this as "daddy", this has to do with what "chichi" actually is. (Aside from a DB character) Chichi is the word in Japanese used to describe your father when talking to someone outside the family, therefore, Noa calling his dad "chichiue" has to do with his detached feelings towards him and it is therefore more accurate to call him "daddy" rather than "father".**

 **This is similar to how Malik uses the same ending in "Ane-ue-sama". This is him showing such distaste disguised in politeness.**

 **Free donuts, hitoue. (Master person, Sir)**


	4. He came with him

It was the beginning of the next day that I was excited for. I had already begun the major construction of the Solid Vision device, I just needed to get it properly wired up. I still didn't know how to so that though, and rather than try to stuff around with a text book, I called Noa.

"Noa, I need someone to help me here, is that okay?" I heard a rough estimate of a yes and he said he'd send someone when it was a reasonable hour. Being in the lab distorted my sense of time. Outside it was 4 AM, and I felt like it was 6. To not waste any time while I waited, I began to program the disk that I'd use to insert into the machine to show off its capabilities. I was so engrossed in the design of the first "game" that I was producing that I didn't notice Noa at the door with another boy.

"Seto, this is your help. Name's Jou. Jou, this is Seto. Do as he says and we'll keep your dad in a job." Jou had dirty blonde hair that was in an unkempt heap on his head. It swept up at the front slightly and his dark brown eyes looked at Noa with concern. He wore a pair of ripped green shorts, ankle socks, broken runners that used to be white and a grey long sleeve shirt. He looked to be my age.

"Pleasure to meet you, Seto. Let's get to work, yeah?" His accent was also very drawn, much like those downtown characters that I had seen on the news. I nodded and told him what was to be done.

"...So you need to hook up the I/O system and the AV regulator. Ah, and can't forget to patch those cameras to a wireless signal either, that way you can send the image from within a 5m radius of the projector." I was a little more than surprised with Jou's knowledge. He was as old as me and years below me at school, but he was well aware of the workings of a computer. I asked him how he came to know all this.

"Ah, see... My dad's a deadbeat, so I began to work. There was a TV shop in my area of town and I helped them by cleaning up every day for them. After a while, the keeper showed me how to fix a TV." I nodded, though my face darkened.

"Then how did you learn all this?" I said, motioning to the Solid Vision board-based projector.

"Ah, see, that all comes down to the internal parts! After that TV shop, cause I had school too, I went to school and asked one of the IT guys there to show me how to fix one of those new computers, you know? Big, shiny things with so many little pieces nowadays..." He went on to detail how in the span of a year was earning more than his father did in a month all due to doing small Odd Jobs™ with the local neighbourhood and repairing electronics. He laughed about the toaster incident, the poor old lady who owned it was shocked to find dead bugs at the bottom, so much so she nearly had heart attack. He was particularly impressed when he shouted back to her "I can build an AED for you!" and she fainted. I smiled faintly, though I was very much absorbed in my own programming.

* * *

It was somewhere around lunch that my stomach was growling and I remembered that both Jou and I were only human, and with quick feet and rumbling bellies, we emerged into the open garden of the back lot, ran to the main house and nearly knocked Noa to the floor. He sighed and then lead us to the kitchen silently.

"Seriously, you can call me from there." He stated exasperatedly as we sat in one of the smaller dining rooms together with tomato soup, sandwiches, fruits and cake.

"But it's so nice to get out of there too..." Jou whispered. Noa's face softened and he smiled faintly.

"Jou, it's okay. Just keep in mind that both of you are not to be seen by Gozaburo _at all._ " And with those words we were lead back to the lab, Noa inspecting our work and once pleased by it, left us to it. Jou was once again dragged into stories, this time about his sister, who was going blind.

"I wonder if we can just...Connect new cameras to her optics... Then she'd just need to come to me and I could fix them." I twitched. Jou began laughing again.

"You sound like a mad scientist." I said to him he grinned.

"You look like the man that would be one." And for once in that short time with Jou, I think I felt what real friends feel.

* * *

We were up long past one that night, Jou said he was finished with the circuits and was ready to test them before the final casing and presentation. I loaded the disk into the drive, a green-lit netting frame forming into bones, organs, muscles and finally skin and clothes. It replicated me. Jou clapped, though he put his hand to his chin and then clapped them together.

"SETO! You need to go bigger if you want to show this off properly!" I said that this should have been enough, all the limbs work on separate cameras and the underlying organs and bones are still operating as a totally new layer of animation. He shook his head.

"Ever heard of Wizards and Dragons? It's the perfect way to show off your tech!" I tilted my head to the side, indicating my confusion. Jou explained it was a card game. I was listening intently, each new game he described to me, how different players played... It made sense that this was the best way to try out my new machine.

"I know!" Jou exclaimed after a short silence, "Let's go get Yugi and his Grandpa to show us their decks, and we can take some photos and you can make them into real monsters! Rawr!" I agreed, and we planned to go the next morning at a "reasonable hour" as Noa reminded me.

* * *

"Jou! Welcome!" Yugi called out from the back of the store, his Grandpa sweeping the tiny main floor.

"And you must be...?" His Grandpa asked me. I told him my name and that I was a few years ahead of Yugi and Jou at school.

"Ah... Well. Welcome indeed. What can we do for you two boys?" Jou grinned widely and then sucked in a deep breath.

"WE NEED TO SEE ALL YOUR MONSTER CARDS, MR MOUTO!" He was positively alive with energy, reminding me of Mokuba. I decided that tonight would be the last night, go back to him. But I had no idea what to tell him. A camp? School things? He was asleep when I came and left? That seems reasonable.

"Hey, Seto, why the long face?" Jou snapped his fingers in front of me, and I realised I must have been too absorbed in my own world.

"Oh, um... My brother. I've been away for a long time and I didn't say that I was going or where I would be." I answered honestly. Jou nodded and then sighed.

"I have a younger sibling too, assuming he's a kid of course. She's a real pain when I just randomly vanish and then reappear at her house. Mom and dad live apart." And just before Jou could expel any more about it, Mr Mouto came back with a full box of cards.

"Now, you kids can build your own deck. I assume that this is what you wanted them for?" Jou gave me a sideways glance. I shrugged.

"Um, sure. We'll hand them back after we're done." I said, my voice wavering.

* * *

The box was filled with all kinds of cards, spells, traps and monsters. Jou and I were in the shop for what felt like forever while we took pictures of cards and then built our own decks, it had only been 45 minutes when Mr Mouto asked how we were going. I had chosen a mostly Dragon deck, with cards also varying into machines. My favourite card to look at was XYZ Dragon Canon. Jou had a Warrior deck which I helped to build, his champion being the Flame Swordsman. We handed the box back after two hours had passed since our entrance into the shop.

Yugi had been with us the whole time, describing the epic battles he imagined that the three of us could have if we all duelled together. He got really animated when talking about his Dark Magician, his favourite card. But then he started talking about something that really caught my interest just as we were leaving.

"They say that there are five ultimate cards, well, ten really. But five of them are really cool! The four Blue-Eyes and Ultimate Dragon! It's said that the Blue-Eyes and Dark Magician duked it out! How cool is that!" Yugi and Jou had unique interactions, Jou would ruffle his hair despite Yugi and him being the same age, yet not the same height. Jou would also nod and give the appropriate vocal responses when needed, though he seemed to be just indulging in the fantasies that Yugi spun.

* * *

"Thanks Yugi, but we'd better head back now. Take care, yeah?" Jou stood to go.

"Not so fast, let's see these decks." Mr Mouto checked Jou's deck, nodding approvingly before adding one more card, a Red Eyes Black Dragon. It was an ultra-rare card, and even now, Jou still holds onto it with all the praise for Mr Mouto still in his eyes. As he looked at mine, he patted me on his shoulder.

"Son, I know a man you need to meet. Pegasus Crawford will be in town later this month and here until the end of tournament season." I was handed back my deck, but not before asking several questions.

"Why do you say this?" Mr Mouto smirked evilly, and Yugi was gasping and making quiet cheers in the background.

"Because... He still has four of the five cards Yugi mentioned in his possession. He says that anyone who can impress him before he leaves will receive their choice of cards from him. Any card they want. So, if you can impress him by duelling or anything else, you can have those cards."

It was these words that would forever solidify my choice of career, both on the field and as a professional.


End file.
